FOOTNOTES:
[1] Anciennes rélations des Indes et de la Chine de deux voyageurs Mahométans, qui y allèrent dans le IXème siècle. Traduit de l'Arabe avec des remarques par Eus. Renaudot. Paris, chez Coignard, 1718. 8vo.
[2] Journal of the Voyage of the I.R. Ship Joseph and Theresa to the new Austrian plantations in Asia and Africa, by Nicolas Fontana, ship-surgeon to Mr. Brambilla, body physician to the Emperor, assistant surgeon in the army. Translated from the Italian MS. by Joseph-Eyerle. Dessau and Leipzig,—"Buch-handlung der Gelehrten."
[3] "I have drawn up these documents," writes Prince Kaunitz, in a state paper addressed to the Empress, dated 27th March, 1776, "in such manner as to advance the objects of your Majesty in establishing commercial intercourse between Austria and the Indies, without incurring disagreeable results, which might accrue from the conferring of unrestricted authority."
[4] A piece of parchment, cut out of a book in zig-zag fashion, which in former times was necessary in all commerce with barbarians, the captains of privateers, when unable to read, being enabled, by comparing the torn-out leaf (scontrino) with the counterfoil, which it was customary to give to all trading persons, to determine to what nationality the vessel belonged.
[5] A few years previous, in 1782, a certain C. F. von Brocktroff, of Kiel, had addressed a memorial to the Emperor Joseph II., in the course of which he warmly advocated the annexation, settlement, and reclamation of the Nicobar Islands, and, on the strength of fifteen years' experience in the East Indies, promised immense profits to the Austrian-German trade by this method of procedure. This interesting treatise will be found among the Government Archives at Vienna, and will be published in full in another section.
[6] Bolts had several times come before the public as an author. In 1771 he issued in London a work in two volumes 4to, entitled, "Considerations on Indian Affairs," which was also translated into French. Further, he published a "Recueil des pièces authentiques rélatives aux affaires de la ci-devant société Impériale-Asiatique de Trieste, gérées à Anvers," which appeared in 4to (116 pages) at Paris, in 1787.
[7] The results of this voyage of discovery are embodied partly in a work in two volumes: "Steen Bille's account of the voyage of the corvette Galatea, round the world" (Copenhagen, Leipzig, 1852), partly in a Geographical sketch of the Nicobar Islands, with special remarks upon Geology, by Dr. H. Rink (Copenhagen, 1847): there will be likewise found in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, under the heading "Nicobar Islands," and at p. 261 of the third volume of the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," under the title "Sketches at the Nicobars," a variety of valuable contributions to our stock of knowledge respecting this island group. In addition, Mr. A. E. Zhishmann, Professor in the Imperial Royal Academy of Commerce and Navigation at Trieste, published, in anticipation of the projected visit of the Novara to this Archipelago, a valuable historico-geographical sketch, entitled, "The Nicobar Islands" (Trieste, Printing Office of the Austrian Lloyds, 1857), which appeared at the same time in the Transactions of the Imp. Roy. Geographical Society for 1857.
[8] Vide, "Indian Political Dispatches," of 1st February, 1848: also the "Hamburger Correspondent," of 30th August, 1848, and "Friend of India," for 1853, p. 455.
[9] Thus, for example, we find on the island of Kar-Nicobar the following specimens of barter:—
| For | Pair of ripe cocoa-nuts. |
| a sort of hunting-knife or cutlass, worth about $1 1⁄2 | 300 |
| a small knife-blade | 100 |
| six table knife-blades | 300 |
| an American knife | 50 |
| a hatchet | 300 |
| a musket | 500 |
| a double-barrelled gun | 2500 |
| a large spoon | 150 |
| thirty feet of silver-wire | 2500 |
| a small cask of rum | 2500 |
| a flask of arrack | 10 |
| three "sticks" of (negro-heads) tobacco | 100 |
| a flask of castor-oil | 50 |
| a cabin lamp | 500 |
| a sack of rice | 300 |
| a piece of blue calico (about 6 to 8 ells) | 100 |
| a neck-cloth | 100 |
Epsom salts, turpentine, spirit of camphor, eau-de-Cologne, and peppermint, are also much-prized articles of barter, and bring a large profit, being exchanged for old clothes, salt meat, onions, and biscuit.
[10] Thus, for instance, there occurred in one of these documents:—"In the village of Aurong, or Arrow, the best anchorage is opposite Capt. Marshall's hut, in from 13 to 15 fathoms water. At many points the coast is so dangerous, that one ship lost two of her men, who were endeavouring to land in a boat." In another certificate it was announced that the barque Batavia of Rotterdam, freighted with rice, of 442 tons burthen, while on her voyage from Rangoon to Europe, was wrecked in Danson's passage, 7th April, 1857, and her crew was very hospitably treated by the natives of Kar-Nicobar. Almost every one of these certificates concludes with the remark that whoever wishes to be on friendly terms with the natives must play no pranks with their women, nor shoot their fowls or hogs in the forest.
[11] This place of interment is situated close to a small village on the north-east side of the island, where the graves are visible in the shape of a number of round stakes sunk about three or four feet into the earth, which are adorned with all sorts of variegated cloths and ribbons.
[12] It is customary to call the liquid contents of the green, unripe cocoa-nut by the name of cocoa-nut milk; but it is rather a clear, delightfully palatable water, which neither in colour nor taste at all resembles milk. This is obtained or pressed from the white, sweet, rather hard kernel, which is itself extraordinarily nutritive, and forms the daily food of the inhabitants. For an entire month, during which we could procure neither cows' nor goats' milk, we experimented on the use of the fluid obtained from the ripe cocoa-nut in our tea and coffee, and found it so excellent that we hardly felt the privation of animal milk.
[13] See Vol. I., p. 240.
[14] This vocabulary, which probably will not be found altogether valueless for the purposes of comparative philology, as also for the assistance of future travellers, will appear at the end of this volume as an Appendix.
[15] See Appendix.
[16] Most of the Austrian sailors are from the Adriatic coast, and accordingly speak an Italian patois.
[17] "Letters on the Nicobar Islands, etc. Addressed by the Rev. I. Gottfried Hänsel, the only surviving missionary, to the Rev. C. J. Latrobe. London, 1812." We are indebted for these rare pamphlets to the kindness of Dr. Rosen of the community of the Moravian Brethren at Genaadendal in South Africa, and do not think, despite its deep interest in the history of missions, that it has ever been translated into another language. Brown in his "History of Missions" has made a few brief extracts from it.
[18] "If an inhabitant of the South Sea Islands have planted during his life but ten bread-fruit trees," says Cook, "he has fulfilled his duties towards his own and his grand-children as fully and effectually as the denizen of our rougher clime, who during his life-long endures the severity of winter, and exhausts his energies in the heats of summer, in order to provide his household with bread, and to save up some trifle for his family to inherit."
[19] From the Malabar word Elettári. This is the common seed so well known in the pharmacopeia in the form of a carminative tincture, and is usually known as Alpinia Cardamomia.
[20] With respect to the resemblance if not indeed identity of the vegetation of the Nicobar Archipelago, with that of the surrounding islands, and the mainland, we beg to refer here to the excellent work of an Austrian naturalist, the learned Dr. Helfer, who, stricken in the flower of his days by the poisoned arrow of a native of the Andaman Islands, fell a victim to his zeal for travel. To the Imperial Royal Geographical Society of Vienna, science is indebted for the German edition of this important information, under the title of the Published and Unpublished Works of Dr. J. W. Helfer upon the Tenasserm Provinces, the Mergins Archipelago, and the Andaman Islands, in the third volume of its Proceedings for 1859.
[21] An extensive description of the zoology of these islands is reserved for the zoological part of the Novara publications, published at the expense of the Austrian government, at the Imperial Printing-office in Vienna.
[22] The Tagali maidens of Luzon regard it as a special proof of the honourable intentions and eagerness of passion of their admirers, if these latter take the betel quid from their mouths!
[23] We did fall in with some few individuals on these islands who by dint of much exertion could count as high as 100.
[24] At Pulo Penang the picul of ripe cocoa-nuts, 300, is worth 5 1⁄2 dollars.
[25] "On measurements as a diagnostic means for distinguishing the human races, being a systematic plan established and investigated by Dr. Karl Scherzer and Dr. Edward Schwarz, for the purpose of taking measurements on individuals of different races, during the voyage of H. I. M.'s frigate Novara round the world." Vide Proceedings of the I.R. Geographical Society of Vienna, vol. II. of 1859, p. 11.
[26] In the Sydney chapter the reader will find the Transportation question pretty fully discussed.